Then, in the same CBS Sports interview, the Baltimore linebacker suddenly added this: “The only thing I'm waiting for — and, Lord, I hope it doesn't happen — is a guy dying on the field. … We understand what we signed up for, and it (stinks).”

And people think Pollard's vicious, brick-wall hits can cause whiplash? Now
that's a jarring change of direction.

Welcome to Super Bowl XLVII, where even the players involved in the game Sunday are struggling to categorize their thoughts on football's violence.

On Friday, Roger Goodell entered the conversation, his news conference heavy with questions about player safety. As league commissioner, Goodell oversees a game that is the greatest sport in America and also our greatest guilty, tragic pleasure.

It was no less than Barack Obama who recently warned parents about allowing their children to play this game and suggested everyone should consider their conscience while watching Sunday.

Asked about those remarks, Ed Reed said, “I'm with Obama on that.” And Reed, in case you're unaware, is the hard-hitting free safety of the Ravens, a man who, at age 34, already admits to suffering memory loss.

So, can we really watch Sunday with a clear head, knowing that some of the players out there entertaining us are, at the same time, going foggy?

The truth is this game already has killed. Players are dying too soon and former players too young, felled, in an alarming number of cases, by their own hands.

On Sunday, who knows? We could be watching the next player who one day will stick a gun barrel at his chest and pull the trigger, trying to help provide the most critical of answers while leaving the most profound of questions: Why?

“The issue of player health and safety has always been a priority in the NFL,” Goodell said. “We will continue to make it a priority. You have our commitment.”

We believe Goodell, believed him Friday even when he said he “welcomed” Obama's comments. The NFL is facing a mountain of litigation from former players or those who have survived them, and Goodell, like everybody else, has no interest in seeing anyone leave the field in a body bag.

But when he attempted to suspend Reed for one game in November because of a helmet-to-helmet hit, the decision was overturned. Reed instead paid a $50,000 fine.

Based on his salary, Reed's penalty equated to a $263 judgment for someone who makes $50,000 a year. In other words, a speeding ticket.

Goodell has a contract that reportedly will pay him $20 million annually before it expires. He has his own security detail. He has someone to drive him anywhere he wants to go and whenever he wants to go there.

Doesn't it seem like a man armed with this much should have more power than just another traffic cop?

“Suspension gets through to them,” Goodell said, explaining why player fines generally fail as a deterrent. “It's gets through on the basis that they don't want to let their teammates down, and they want to be on the field.”

Again, we're with Goodell here, although this isn't the easiest time to be on his side. In a poll by USA Today this week, 61 percent of the players who responded indicated they disapproved of Goodell's job performance.

He is finishing a season in which the league absurdly used replacement referees and an offseason in which 15 top job vacancies — eight head coaches and seven general managers — were filled and all 15 candidates hired were white.

“The results this year,” Goodell said, “were simply not acceptable.”

There is an effigy of the man hanging in this city, a response to Goodell's handling of the Saints' bounty case.

His picture decorates dart boards in bars and front doors at restaurants, marked by the words “Do Not Serve This Man.” His likeness appears on voodoo dolls for sale along Canal Street.

Last weekend, there was even a Goodell-themed Mardi Gras float that we'd love to describe here, but newspaper ethics and human decency don't allow it.

Still, we applaud Goodell when he calls safety “a must” and sells the need for escalating discipline. More important, we believe him.

Meanwhile, with Super Bowl XLVII now only hours away, we hear more from Ed Reed:

“I'm not all the way concerned right now about the memory-loss thing so much being football-related, because I only had about two or three concussions in my career, maybe more that you don't really know of.”

So, can we really watch Sunday with a clear head? Sure, just as long as we also watch with open eyes.

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